Intro to Cryptocurrency: Crypto Lingo 101

The cryptocurrency market can be confusing to those just getting into the mix, and if you’re deep into the game, you may even be part of small groups on Facebook or find yourself scrolling Telegram channels on your phone. Whichever way you connect with fellow investors, you will likely notice a certain nomenclature or lingo being used in the crypto world.

Despite the widespread doubt and uncertainty towards digital assets, cryptocurrency has developed its own culture distinctively different from anything we’ve seen before. With the development of Bitcoin and hundreds of altcoins (alternative coins), a community of investors from around the world have connected in support of the burgeoning crypto market. Hundreds of thousands of excited investors have poured into this market all looking to achieve some form of financial advancement. With the mixture of so many diverse individuals, a culture was born.

Here are six of the most commonly misunderstood phrases within crypto-culture:

HODL – Someone spelled “hold” wrong in a community chat and it caught on; meaning to refrain from selling your coins.

FOMO – A psychological phenomenon where an investor fears missing a potential price increase and the opportunity to make a lot of money so they make more impulsive purchases/exchanges.

Mooning – The price of a coin going extremely high.

Whale – Someone who owns a shit load of coins!

ICO – Initial Coin Offering. A form of crowdfunding where investors purchase coins at a discounted rate as a means of raising money to build the developer’s platform.

As cryptocurrencies grow and become more widely accepted, we will continue to see the growth of crypto-culture and the advent of new words and phrases. Crypto exploded in the final quarter of 2017 and it’s expected to grow even more in the year 2018 and beyond.